The latest bid for Freecharge has come from Amazon, which is pegged at $70 to $80 million. This is more than what Axis Bank is ready to offer. But, Snapdeal founders are keen to go with Infibeam

Latest developments in the Indian eCommerce mergers and acquisition space has turned up the heat and demolished several pre-conceived notions.

In a major twist, Snapdeal founders have indicated that instead of Flipkart, they want Infibeam to acquire them. We try to explore reasons behind this change.

Meanwhile, in another major development, Amazon India has expressed strong desire to acquire mobile wallet Freecharge, which is again very surprising. But what inspired Amazon to take this step?

Are these two developments: Snapdeal-Infibeam and Amazon-Freecharge acquisition are inter-related?

Snapdeal Founders: Infibeam, Not Flipkart Should Acquire Us

It seems that there is a major cold-war brewing up within Snapdeal Board of Directors.

As per reports coming in, Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have indicated that Infibeam should acquire them, rather than Flipkart.

On the other hand, SoftBank, which is the major shareholder in Snapdeal, wants Flipkart to acquire Snapdeal.

This is the yet another new shift in direction, after venture capital (VC) firms Nexus Venture and Kalaari Capital locked over the valuation angle and postponed the possible merger of Snapdeal with Flipkart.

Infibeam is the only listed eCommerce firm from India, as they earlier raised Rs 450 crore via IPO route, at a valuation of Rs 2230 crore. They had earlier placed a bid of $700 million for Snapdeal, which is less than Flipkart’s bid of $850 million.

Mohul keenly observes the nuances of Indian startup world; and tries to demystify the secrets behind Technology, Marketing, Mobile and Internet. He is a Writer by passion, Marketer by choice and Entrepreneur by compulsion. Follow him on Twitter here: @_mohul